All told, Antarctica’s glaciers are the size of the United States and Mexico combined, and they contain enough water to raise the world’s sea level by 180 feet. And although no humans live permanently in Antarctica, what happens there impacts everyone, said Aradhna Tripati, a geochemist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability who collaborated research.

To read more visit: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160223143620.htm

Scientists from MIT and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have found that a widespread and permanent loss of forests in Madagascar that occurred 1,000 years ago was due not to climate change or any natural disaster, but to human settlers who set fire to the forests to make way for grazing cattle.

To read more visit: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160218144912.htm

“Katzner, a research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and Kaltenecker, executive director of Boise State University’s Intermountain Bird Observatory, have teamed up with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to create a series of motion-sensitive camera traps to monitor golden eagle migration and distribution in southwest Idaho.”

“Katzner has published a couple of scientific papers to fit his data into a larger context. “We are looking at the timing of arrival of specific species, and the links to migration, hunger and the amount of food available,” he said. “We also get some amazing natural history stories that contribute to our understanding of the biology of these species.”

To read more go to: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160212093654.htm

“Scientists have long known that birds are feeling the heat due to climate change. However, a new study of a dozen affected species in the Western Cape suggests their decline is more complex than previously thought — and in some cases more serious.”

To learn more about this, go here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151116084855.htm

“Northern spotted owl populations are declining in all parts of their range in the Pacific Northwest, according to research published in The Condor. Based on data from 11 study areas across Washington, Oregon and northern California, a rangewide decline of nearly 4 percent per year was estimated from 1985 to 2013.

Researchers found evidence that the invasive barred owl is playing a pivotal role in the continued decline of spotted owls, although habitat loss and climate variation were also important in some parts of the species range. Barred owls compete with spotted owls for space, food and habitat.”

“If you live anywhere El Niño has important impacts, you’ve heard forecasters say this year’s event looks just like the monster El Niño of 1997-98. NASA satellite images of the Pacific Ocean in November 1997 and November 2015 show almost identical, large pools of warm water in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The National Weather Service has forecast that impacts this winter will resemble those in 1997, when California and the South suffered floods, mudslides and tornadoes, while residents of the Upper Midwest saved $2 billion to $7 billion in heating costs throughout their unusually warm winter.”

To read more information visit: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/2015-and-1997-el-ni-os-d-j-vu-or-something-new

It is found a “high probability” that the planet’s 26,000 polar bears will suffer a 30% decline in population by 2050 due to the loss of their habitat, which is disappearing at a faster rate than predicted by climate models.

For more information visit: visit: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/19/climate-change-is-single-biggest-threat-to-polar-bear-survival